The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-01-16

q comeiiness, against the coarse cotton
garment.
appointed and sad to-day and yesterday,
too. He had not said hs would come
NO. But 'Viney had waited and hoped
and curied her front hair afresh before the
fragment of her broken mirror, and sighed
trife, too, as she looked into it, She had
tied q pink ribbon around her neck also
with the little blue enameled locket her
mother had given her-her choicest, her
dearest treasure and possession And this
had but served 70 make her poor little face
more sallow. But she had not known that
though Till had, and had gazed upon her
with . look Of contempt from those black
eyes OF hers that seemed always smolderin2
now with strange, pent up fires. Yes,
'Viney had been . little disappointed when
he had not come. She had taken OF the
pink ribbon and wrapped the blue lockes
in its folds Of tissue paper again, with lit
tie lump i'm her throat But before the glory
of this night the shadows fed There was
room only In her heart for wonder that he
should ever have loved her. For meek and
reverent rapture that it should be 50, She
could never have believed it, she said To
herself over and over. And yet, IL it had
not been for her, why else should he have
come so often, 'Viney sighed unutterable
content. The world tonight was more
A little wind blew up and rustled the
branches. and from the dark shadows the
bushes made down By the gate another and
living shadow detached itself Ii hesitated
and it turned toward the house. Not Joe
why, yes. joe, surely! 'Viney threw ON
ner dress and crept to the door in her
stocking feet and softly opened it. What
could he want, Had anything gone
wrong, She stepped swiftly; only she
ksa rSfs nj Unf m BE- kSD. fall
and Till. The floor creaked under her
weight, light rs it was. She felt her way
down the two flights Of steep, stin stairs
Something must be surely wrong that he
should come at this time Of night. When
she got to the foot she thought she heard the
sound Of hard, quick breathing in the
dark near her face With q sudden terror
she felt for the bolt of the door. But it had
been drawn back already. As she lifted the
heavy wooden latch and let in . ray of
pale moonlight, joe stole out from behind
the black column Of the porch and Till had
brushed past her like the wind and was
fleeing UPSTAIRS.
IL was all done in u minute All in the
same sceoi,d is seemed to her, too, that she
heard her fathers voice give q yell like that
Of wild beast, and knew that he had seen
Joe outside and caught his wife as she ran
wildly up Herself he could not SEQ, for
she hsd r-treatsd unconsciously behind the
heavy door ia opening il.
They had always said she was slow of
wit and Viney, humbly, had believed IL.
Perhaps she Was Yet her action was
swift as thought.
.'Oh, father, fatherr' she cried Aud,
As once before, she said: He come for me,
Joe come for me?"
She was up the stairs and by the kneeling
woman's side and her fathers - the words
left her lips
lis that true! Is h another Of your lies,'
Saunders shrieksd-
NO, no." gasI,ed Till, gathering up the
masses Of her hair, that had come down
with Instructive, trembling fingers. .It's
true what she say. He come for her-for
IAviney."
Then git, yvui'' and old Saunders, with
awful words that turned the girl hot and
cold, had her by the shoulder and down
the stairs and then pushed her out and
closed the door behind her.
Father fatherr' But there was no re-
sponse. Joe had gone, fed fast, forever.
And 'viney stood there paralyzed. After
that first effort she made no other. She
could not explain. She knew her father
and she must go-somewhere. He would
never believe hsr-no, never. And all would
know he had turned her out, all would know
what he had thought Of her, what words he
had said But oven that was nothing.
Something more awful than that had hap
pened Something had died within her
Her dream-shs had dreamed In the moon
light at her attic window-her dream of
Joe's love and hi. faith, That had died.
And Tll-Till, her fathers wife,
She stumbled more than she walked down
the garden path 70 the gate and out upon
the lane. The heavy dews drenched her
feet through her cotton stockings. In u
little while her thin dress, her hair, were
damp with il. She did not know. The
moon was travelling westward and shone on
the white road and the fields with CLASSY
and spectral light like that OF another
planet, except that 'Viney did not know OF
such things as planets.
There was a dreadful weight in her head,
. dreadful humming; . sensation a. Of
having been struck by something. She did
not know how far she had walked through
the silent country, over the silvsred roads.
The moon was going down. A leaden
weariness was creeping into her limbs her
eyeli,is dropped, y numbnes Of great sleep
oyercame her. She crawled under the
protecting branches OF . tangled hedge
about an apple orchard and let her head
drop in the hollow Of her arms
When she woke there was no sun yet
but a chill gray light Of breaking dawn.
AT first, 'Viney did not know where she was.
But oh, the returning consciousness Of the
burden mercifulIy uroppeo IRON the spirit
in sleep! With the grip at her heart
'Viney started 10 her feet like q hunted
creature. Joe's treachery and Till-Oh,
Till. This WAS the maddening thought
Not that she WAS roo6ess. homeless, penni
less. She WAS running, running fast as her
feet would carry her, over the brambles
and stubble and the rocks that pierced
through the surface Of the wet fields, DOWN
ward where the river flowed swift, broad
and gray, with the white mist Of dawn
shrouding its silent course. And there
was . sudden plunge. They said after
ward that 'Viney had lost her wits-poor,
duh, plain 'Vinsy, who had never had much
to lose Perhaps they were right Per-
haps she had Evelyn Thorpe in New
York Mercury.
vill not aay u ahe b DARK Or TAR.
Or n her eyes b. basel. black or blue:
viii not dwell upon Ass wealth of hair.
Or On in aIken gloa1fneo a huA